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Born almost a decade after the finish of the First World War, Harold Taylor shares with us memories of the beginnings of the Second World War. At the time, he was living with his family in Alexandra Road, Chichester.
A bit of fun each year before the war, was the arrival for summer camp of the Territorial Army. There would be various units represented, and they would arrive in their colourful array of uniforms at Chichester Station to march off to Lavant, where the camp was established, to the music of their own bands. I think the camp lasted a fortnight. There was a similar one held at Arundel. I have a feeling that the conclusion of this one coincided with August Bank Holiday, when they held a gymkhana.
An amusing incident happened at Lavant several years before the war. There had been a children's home in a couple of adjoining houses on the Stoke Road, nearly opposite the camp, with several fruit trees in the garden. I suppose from experience of previous years, the managers of the home tried to preserve their fruit. They fastened a notice to the effect that the fruit was being saved for the Harvest Festival. The following morning a notice was found to the effect that the harvest had all been safely gathered in, and the trees were bare.
Just prior to the war there was a big A.R.P exercise to test the efficiency of local and national bodies. There were mock air raids, and searchlights, and radio location units were set up in fields around. The Territorial Army took part. In Chichester, this represented the Sussex Yeomanry, who paraded at the Drill Hall in East Row.
They had 15cwt trucks equipped with radio telephones, which either they could not operate or were not working satisfactory. We kids of course crowded round and found that they were unable to keep in touch with each other from one side of the rec. to the other, and none seemed to know Morse when the microphones did not work. They were also supposed to use flags for signalling and there were more kids doing this than the soldiers. Many of these lads were lost or captured at Dunkirk.
About the time of the 1938 crisis, the A.R.P. had a dress rehearsal. My father was a first aid party leader and his immediate bosses (the local Council) were the organisers, so he was delegated to find victims for the rescue workers to work on. The Unicorn Hotel at East Gate Square was still in the process of being re-built and the hoardings were around it, so this was the site chosen to be where a bomb had dropped. The place was blacked out and the casualties took up their positions.
I was laid on the cold pavement for a long time and was the last to be taken by mortuary ambulance to the Isolation Hospital, which was the Casualty Clearing Station. I was supposed to have a transverse wound across the stomach and was dealt with in the wrong manner. When I was taken in, Dr Barford, who was in charge, took one look at me and said, 'He's no good, he's dead' and I was wheeled out again.
When the war came it was a little different. The first incident that I recall was the bombing of Basin Road. I had just woken up one morning for work, I guess it was about 7 a.m. There were several Crumps and the room was lit by blue flashes. At that time I do not think that we really accepted that it was bombs.
When I got to work, we were sent to Hall's Corn Warehouse in South Gate. A Mr Dunnet was the manager. The roof of the stores was peppered with shrapnel holes and we were there to repair them, and also the guttering.
The bombs had fallen on the east side of Basin Road and, I think, demolished a pair of houses. There was a lot of damage to the houses on the west side. There was also a bomb that had fallen behind the new Court House, which was still in the process of being built. This had caved in a wall below ground level, which was in the cells area.
When the invasion scare was on, and before I had joined the Home Guard, they called for volunteers on Sunday mornings to go out and erect anti-glider barrages. These were posts about 12 foot high embedded in the earth, to prevent these aircraft from landing. The first Sunday morning, we all met in the cattle market where we boarded council lorries and were driven out into the country.
The first place I went was in the field behind Shopwyke Grange, towards Tangmere. The field was owned or rented by young Heaver, who had cattle there. He lived in Coach Road, and was the son of the owner of Chichester Dairies. We were assigned two to a hole, to plant these posts. My helper was George Bevis who managed the chemist shop in East Gate Square.
One of the most spectacular sights I saw in this war was on a Saturday evening. I was walking past St. Pancras Church on my way to the Gaumont Cinema, when I heard the ominous sound of a German aircraft engine. There was no air raid alert on at the time. Over the building, quite low, flew this aircraft which I seen to remember was a Dornier, at probably no more than a thousand feet.
Suddenly an alert anti-aircraft crew of a Bofors Gun started firing from the Hunston area. They fired just 15 shots, three magazines. The aircraft started to dive and I believe it crashed somewhere near Selsey. All the shots had been closely clustered around the plane.
Once there was a plane rumoured to have crashed near Fishbourne. My brother, Henry wanted me to go with him to see if we could get a souvenir. I took some of my tools and we eventually tracked the plane down. I guessed that it was on Old Park Farm. Anyhow, it was the other side of Dell Quay waters. There was a guard on the plane, which was a Junkers 87.
In the field next door, we spotted the cabin hood, rolled it into a ditch and I removed the gun ring from the canopy. Others must have removed the machine gun, as it was nowhere to be seen. Henry cycled home with our treasure on his shoulder with his jacket draped over it, just like a coat hanger. This remained in our shed till my father died and my mother moved. It was presumably left behind, and may still be there.
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